Half Way Through the Silk Way Rally and Jurgen Schroeder and His Nissan are in 16th Overalll

In what is one of the longer, more difficult rally-raids the Silk Way Rally is often viewed as a precursor to the Dakar where the big boys come out to play and test their machines.

With Cyril Depres, Sebastian Loeb, Stephane Peterhansel, and Yazeed al Rajhi all present the leaderboard is stacked with potential Dakar 2017 winners.

Jurgen Schroeder and his son Max are piloting their South African built Nissan Navarra V8 across Russia, its former territories, and all the way to Beijing.  They have run well so far with a few navigation hiccups today that cost them some 10 minutes or more and leaves them in 16th place overall and one hour, nine minutes behind the leader, Cyril Despres.  The Nissan shop in South Africa run by Terence Marsh for Red Lined Motorsport has sent some mechanics to assist but otherwise this is a pure privateer effort.

Silk Way Rally Nissan Results through Stage 6

16th  Jurgen Schroeder, Nissan Navara, 1:08:54 adrift
20th  Sergey Uspenskiy, Nissan GForce Proto, 1:36:48
21st  Miao Ma, Nissan Pathfinder, 1:42:08
37th  Sergey Fomin, Nissan NP300 Pickup, 3:14:48
53rd  Rong Zi, Nissan Patrol, 4:45:21

V8 Navara Takes Third in South Africa...

In the Donaldson Cross Country Motor Racing Championship.  This was in Production Class T and driven by Luke Botha and codriven by Andre Vermeulen.  The event (Toyota Kalahari Botswana 1000 Desert Race) brakes down into two races, each of near 500km and is a brutal test of some of the best Rally-Raid drivers this side of Dakar.

The Red-Lined Motorsport team consistently fields four or more V8 powered Navaras (Frontiers) in the Donaldson series and also sends a handful of cars to the Dakar the past few years.

https://www.facebook.com/sacrosscountryracing/

Nissan Patrol Running Well at Italian Baja...

Abdel Abdulla came into the Italian Baja in 2nd place overall for the year in the T2 class of the FIA Cross-Country Rally standings and is holding that place through the first two days of the three day event.

Currently having finished Stage 3 of the race, Abdulla is in second in T2 (production vehicles) about 2 and 1/2 minutes behind Seaidan and his LandCrusier who Abdullah is chasing for the '16 championship.

Tomorrow will present two more chances to catch Seaidan, each another 74 kilometers in length along what is a gravelly and water crossing filled course.  Abdulla sits 21st overall out of 45 entrants and is the second placing Nissan so far.  No Nissans have DNF'd to date and other sit as follows:

9th--Oliveira, Looks like a diesel Pathfinder...but unsure of real engine...Running in T1 class
21st--Abdulla, Patrol Y62
27th--Lechowicz, Navara (Frontier) D40
30th--Rossi, Pathfinder LR50
31st--Crozzolo, Navara (Frontier)
32nd--Toro, Patrol
33rd--Piec, Navara (Frontier) D40
38th--Traglio, Patrol

Nissan Patrol Closes in on FIA T2 Class

The FIA's World Championship for Cross-Country Rallies is dominated at the highest level of the sport by your well known Dakar entrants and efforts with Nasser Al-Attiyah, Carlos Sainz, Jean-Luis Schlesser, etc.  These entrants are in the T1 class for "prototype" cross-country vehicles.

The T2 class however is for production based vehicles and it is here where Nissan is leading the pack with a Nissan Patrol (known in the US as the Infiniti QX80).  Driver Adel Abdulla had taken a win in Abu Dhabi and had a 4th Qatar earlier this year and enters the 4th event of the season in Italy this weekend 12 points out of the T2 lead behind Yasir Seaidan and his Toyota LandCruiser.  With Yasir having two Dakars under his belt, he certainly has the experience to take the overall win...though the change in terrain from the deserts of the Mid-East to the tighter, rockier terrain of Italy may be an equalizer.

http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/sports/qatar-sport/385653/qatar-s-adel-aims-to-grab-lead-in-italy

You can follow the Italian Baja here:  http://www.italianbaja.it/?lang=en

This event will also include American Bryce Menzies behind the wheel of a XRaid Mini as he continues to prep for what is anticipated to be a Red Bull backed effort at Dakar '17 under the Mini banner.

Citroen 2CV At Libya Rally...

The Libya Rally notes on its website that it is not an official FIA rally and thus is more open to "special" vehicles than some other events might be.  That said...This Citroen 2CV is quite...special.  Not sure that roll cage is up to snuff, nor the canvas doors but maybe that's just me...

I'm looking for more info on the team, its drivers (Frank Elsermans from Germany) and vehicle but suffice it to say that this little VW Bug looking vehicle (for that's what I took it for at first) appears to be a bit out of place.  That said...the little bugger sits in 45 out of 52 entries in the event...so...its not last!  All photos are from the 2014 Libya Rally.
Libya Rally...

Book Review: Tales From The Bivouac

This review is bound to be biased given my intense interest in the subject but I'll try to be balanced.

Tales From the Bivouac is a collection of personal tales from individual racers participating in various rally-raid events around the world.  Though nothing in the book or on the associated website states that the work limits itself the tales of motorcyclists, it ends up that way in the second edition of this series (which is the one reviewed here--I haven't read the first edition).

This is a wise course of action for the work.  While the stories of "car" drivers could be valuable as well, no participants have to be so self sufficient and involved in every detail of their racing as a biker.  This gives them a more comprehensive view of the race and what it entails and, as a benefit to the reader, first hand experience with every little breakdown and misadventure.

Covering the Australian Rally (Jason Adams on an Airhead BMW), Mexican 1000 (Doug Chapman in his first Rally Raid), Dakar (Kevin Muggleton in an event that ended far to early for his liking) and the Baja Rally (Jeremy Brown), TFTB Vol. II isn't focused on the pointy end of the competitive entries but instead on the sportsman efforts that are closer to the efforts that I or most "regular" folks would put together.  Stories of rushed preparation efforts, limited budgets, redneck vehicle fixes, all night drives, and overwhelming elation at having just finishing one of these events are familiar to many.

Apart from the great stories of personal drive in the face of enormous obstacles are the wonderful photos throughout the work.  Taking some of the best images from these events and printing them in full or nearly so page sized versions turns this into something worthy of being on a coffeetable.  Printed in heavy stock, brilliant white paper, the work is not a hardcover but far from a cheap magazine.  The love and care that the editors put into their own racing efforts as well as of being true fans of the sport is clearly shown.  It could use a bit more proofing as spelling and grammar errors are more evident than they should be but that does not take away from what is at the core of Tales From the Bivouac.  It is the love of rally that shines through both in the stories and in the quality of the work.  TFTB brings that love front and center in beautiful images and words worthy of any Rally fan.

If you want your own copy--which I highly suggest--go here for more info and ordering instructions:  http://www.tftb.org/

Bowler's Land Rover Defender Challenge

God I love me some Land Rover Defender...

If there is a vehicle I would LOVE to have in my stable it would be the Defender...Like a Jeep Wrangler--but way cooler.  And in bright yellow please!

So how awesome is it that Bowler (the company making all sort of Dakar spec Land Rover based race vehicles) has created its own offroad racing series with "inexpensive" Defenders?  Some $83K will get you the race vehicle all kitted out for racing and it sounds like another $22K gets you your entry fee into all seven 2014 events (a bit over $3K a race....not bad at all considering it comes with full catering in the pits, full service by the Bowler team and can then compete alongside the Bowler works team in international competition).

For your money you get to rip around the English countryside in rally-raid style events designed to prep any aspiring racer for events like the Dakar or Africa Eco-Challenge or any of the dozens of Rally-Raid events taking place throughout Europe and Africa.  A simple vehicle amply ready to be beat upon and withstand beginner mistakes the Defender makes a great platform for some rough and tough racing.  Supposedly almost all slots in the '14 series are spoken for and represent a great way to get into the high end of the sport for the inexperienced.

Plus maybe in a year or two they'll start selling some of the "gently loved" race-spec Defenders...A short article by the Top Gear folks is found below on this series...

Top Gear on the Bowler Challenge...
Bowler Defender Challenge...